All fair questions, Smitty! Here's full book. In 1986-87 I was assigned to Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis, now Joint Base Lewis McChord, for the residency portion of my US Army-Baylor University graduate program in health care administration. Fell in love with the PNW and felt like I had found my spiritual home. I had a follow-on assignment waiting for me at Madigan. But our family had only the year before returned to the US from four years in Belgium. Assigned to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio for the didactic year of the graduate program. Enrolled the kids in school, began the reorientation to the USA process etc and when the residency phase commenced, I went to Madigan unaccompanied. No worries. Returned home monthly for the weekend. But when the time came for the follow-on assignment, the family was by now settled in San Antonio and balked at relocating again. I turned it down with heartfelt regret and ended up serving as the XO of the last remaining MASH in Korea, another unaccompanied year, in exchange for a return assignment at our major command HQ in San Antonio. Loved the assignment, but hated the separation and hated even more my absence from the PNW. I've been trying to get back ever since, and regularly visit at least annually for a couple of weeks.
Finally decided the most feasible and affordable way to return is buy a boat as a vacation destination and park it in a nice full service marina where I can visit as frequently as I want without the need to pack a bag every time, with the benefit of cruising the PNW waters from Olympia to Alaska. Made friends among boat owners, some of whom are liveaboards. So my first foray was to look at a 40 ft Tolly Sundeck berthed at Shilshole Bay Marina with transferable liveaboard slip. No buyer broker. Just me dealing with the selling broker, He was fine, no complaints. The day I arrived we conducted the haul out survey and the sea trial. The Crusader gas engines were powerful and the boat would turn on a dime and fly over its own wake at WOT. Had never set foot on a boat this size until that morning. I was smitten and agreed on the spot to buy it. Had already surrendered my 10% deposit and we agreed on a close 5 days later and in the meantime I could remain on the boat. For the next 2 days I took lessons in seamanship and boat handling. It was challenging and I began to appreciate the boats in the marina that slid into their slips with ease with the use of their bow thrusters while I was limited to manipulating the twin screws to overcome tide and wind. Began to have second thoughts about my hasty decision made with little prior research. Recognized I would probably have preferred diesel engines and a boat that offered more interior space. And I was frustrated when I went to take a shower and found the faucet wasn't operational, but sprayed all over the entire head. That, and other shortcomings I discovered while onbaord that weren't in the survey findings convinced me to belatedly decide this wasn't the boat for me and if I closed the sale I would probably regret it. So I disembarked, notified the broker, and forfeited the deposit.
Now, the owner actually got the better part of the deal, because in addition to the deposit, I had paid to have the hull powerwashed, flushed the blackwater tank, filled the fresh water tank, and most importantly, filled both fuel tanks and added fuel stabilizer on top of that. That was when I discovered the fuel gauges were inaccurate and a small top up became $800 in fuel. So, this was a costly venture, but in spite of the financial pain I don't regret it because it was a learning experience for me. I had to return to san Antonio and resumed my search online, with the help of the friends I had made. My friends had wanted to steer my to a larger Tolly, but I still couldn't find anything that inspired me.
Instead, I found this particular Camargue myself with no aid from anyone else. I made inquiries about it but no one had a clue of its history. Because of my distance, I engaged a buyer's broker. He visited the boat and confirmed the photos in the ad are faithful representations and the boat appeared to be in very good condition aside from bilge stink and mildew and the pervasive odor of diesel. But the seller's broker wouldn't even allow him, a licensed broker representing a client, to crank the engines or do anything other than conduct a visual walk through and wouldn't share details of the engine replacement or provide any documentation at all to review. Selling broker did say he had results of a previous survey, but wouldn't provide that prior to the receipt of an offer and earnest money. My broker encouraged me to fly back out to the coast and see it for myself, but also informed me the seller broker could be difficult to deal with. I instructed him to begin negotiations on my behalf and it we could come to terms I would fly out there and personally inspect it prior to the survey. Just prior to sending the earnest money, I asked my broker to ensure the availability of the promised documentation. Curiously, he came back a short while later, puzzled, to relate to me the selling broker denied he had ever said such a thing.
So, very long story short, I had not actually laid hands on the boat because the deal blew up literally hours before I was going to send the deposit. After their broker sent a scathing note essentially questioning my parentage, I returned fire with a note directly to him stating my conditions stood as written and questioning his apparent challenged relationship with ethics. I also sent a letter to the owner expressing dissatisfaction with her broker, his misrepresentation of the boat and his apparent disinterest in selling it at all. That was more than my broker could deal with. Rather than getting into a protracted pissing and legal contest with the broker and owner, mine washed his hands of the affair. My current broker, who was recommended to me by one of my friends who owns a larger Tolly at Shilshole, is fully aware of my travails and my sights are set elsewhere. As for the other buyer broker, I'm referring him to the NW Yacht Brokers Association Ethics Committee for unprofessional conduct and fraudulent misreprentation of the boat.